copit

Copy reusable source code from GitHub repos, HTTP URLs, and ZIP archives into your project.

Inspired by shadcn/ui — instead of installing opaque packages, copit copies source code directly into your codebase. The code is yours: readable, modifiable, and fully owned. No hidden abstractions, no dependency lock-in. Override anything, keep what you need.

Use cases

• Quickly copy and own code — Pull files from GitHub repos, HTTP URLs, or ZIP archives directly into your project. No forks, no submodules — just your own copy to read, modify, and maintain.

• Build frameworks with injectable components — Create a core library as a traditional package, then offer optional components that users copy into their projects via copit. Think of how shadcn/ui is built on top of Tailwind and Radix UI: the base libraries are installed as dependencies, while UI components are copied in and fully owned. Apply the same pattern to any ecosystem — a LangChain-style core as a library, with community integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) as injectable source code that users can customize freely.

Installation

Standalone (recommended)

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huynguyengl99/copit/main/install.sh | bash

You can specify a version or install directory:

COPIT_VERSION=v0.1.0 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huynguyengl99/copit/main/install.sh | bash

# Custom install location
INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huynguyengl99/copit/main/install.sh | bash

From PyPI

pip install copit
# or
uv pip install copit

From Cargo

cargo install copit

Uninstall

If installed via the standalone script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huynguyengl99/copit/main/uninstall.sh | bash

If installed to a custom directory:

INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huynguyengl99/copit/main/uninstall.sh | bash

For PyPI: pip uninstall copit. For Cargo: cargo uninstall copit.

Quick start

# Initialize a copit.toml in your project
copit init

# Copy a file from a GitHub repo
copit add github:serde-rs/serde@v1.0.219/serde/src/lib.rs

# Copy a file from a raw URL
copit add https://raw.githubusercontent.com/serde-rs/serde/refs/heads/master/LICENSE-MIT

# Copy from a ZIP archive
copit add https://example.com/archive.zip#src/utils.rs

Usage

copit init

Creates a copit.toml config file in the current directory with a default target directory (vendor).

copit add <source>...

Fetches source code and copies it into your project.

Usage: copit add [OPTIONS] [SOURCES]...

Arguments:
  [SOURCES]...  Source(s) to add (e.g., github:owner/repo@ref/path, https://...)

Options:
      --to <TO>    Target directory to copy files into
      --overwrite  Overwrite existing files without prompting
      --skip       Skip existing files without prompting
      --backup     Save .orig copy of new version for excluded modified files

Source formats

Format	Example
GitHub	github:owner/repo@ref/path/to/file (alias: gh:)
HTTP URL	https://example.com/file.txt
ZIP archive	https://example.com/archive.zip#inner/path

copit update <path>...

Re-fetches specific tracked source(s) by path (as shown in copit.toml). Always overwrites non-excluded files.

# Re-fetch a specific tracked source
copit update vendor/mylib

# Re-fetch with a new version
copit update vendor/mylib --ref v2.0

# Re-fetch with backup for excluded modified files
copit update vendor/mylib --backup

Options:

• --ref <version> — Override the version ref for this update (updates the source string and ref field)
• --backup — Save .orig copy of new version for excluded modified files

copit sync

Re-fetches all tracked sources in copit.toml.

# Re-fetch all tracked sources
copit sync

# Re-fetch all with backup for excluded modified files
copit sync --backup

Options:

• --ref <version> — Override the version ref (errors if multiple sources are tracked)
• --backup — Save .orig copy of new version for excluded modified files

copit remove <path>... (alias: rm)

Removes previously copied files from disk and their entries from copit.toml.

# Remove a specific file
copit remove vendor/lib.rs

# Remove multiple files
copit rm vendor/lib.rs vendor/utils.rs

# Remove all tracked sources
copit rm --all

Config file

copit.toml tracks your project's target directory and all copied sources:

[project]
target = "vendor"

[[sources]]
path = "vendor/prek-identify"
source = "github:j178/prek@master/crates/prek-identify"
ref = "master"
commit = "abc123def456..."
copied_at = "2026-03-07T08:46:51Z"
exclude_modified = ["Cargo.toml", "src/lib.rs"]

• ref: The user-specified version string (branch/tag/sha)
• commit: Resolved commit SHA from GitHub API (optional, GitHub sources only)
• exclude_modified: List of relative paths (within source folder) to skip on re-add. With --backup, the new version is saved as <file>.orig.

License

MIT